Today is a tragic anniversary in Montreal, a day that should not be forgotten. On this day seventeen years ago, a madman went on a shooting rampage at a Montreal engineering school killing fourteen women.

The killer’s actions were calculated and he selected the women because he was an anti-feminist. He was also very angry at the world and blamed women for all that failed in his life. It was a real sad evening that I remember very well.

That night I was going with some buddies for a coffee when the news bulletin came on the radio, we sat in the car in shock as we listened to the number of victims. We could not believe it when the announcer said that there were more than a dozen victims. It was shocking to us all that such violence could happen in our city. When we later realized that all his victims were women, we were even in more shock. Why would he just choose women like that, it did not make sense.

The senseless violence of that evening lead to stricter gun control in the country but still not strong enough as we saw a few months ago at Dawson College. The government should not get more lax on gun control, human life is too important.

We should never forget such tragedies. I fear that if we forget such events they risk happening again. I will list the names of the victims as a tribute to them below. The shooter also died that day, he turned the gun on himself, his name is not important, I will not put it on the list.

For a good article in a Vancouver based magazine on the anniversary see this link and for information on the events of that tragic day see CBC archives.